David Murdoch and Great Britain have made history in Sochi, but don't intend to stop there. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

David Murdoch, the Team GB skip, said on Wednesday night that the spirit of London 2012 had helped his rink become the first British curling men to reach an Olympic final for 90 years and guarantee the best medal haul at a Winter Games since at least 1936.

After defeating the world champions, Sweden, 6-5 with a perfect pair of shots in the final end and guaranteeing at least silver Murdoch said that facing Canada in the final would be the ultimate reward for a career that has contained its fair share of disappointment. "It's just outrageous. I can't believe it. Twelve years of dedicating your life to a sport to get up, to get your body up to go through injuries, train hard, to make a lot of sacrifices and I still can't believe after all these years we are in the final," he said.

Murdoch narrowly missed out on a medal when Britain finished fourth in Turin and disappointed in Vancouver despite going into the tournament as world champions. He said that he thought his chance had gone but that, thanks to a Swedish coach and three team-mates aged under 25 who train with him in Stirling, he now had a shot at Olympic gold.

"After Vancouver I thought that was it, to be honest. I didn't think there would be any way back. You don't get the chances very often to go to the Olympics and there was probably a bit of my head that wasn't in it any more," he said.

"But I pushed through that, trained hard and big credit to my coach, Soren Gran, who changed a large part of my life. He brought me to Stirling to train, to throw every morning, to practise harder than I've ever done in my life and he's pushed me right to the edge. We're now getting the rewards from that."

His rink will face Canada, who defeated China 10-6, in the final. Murdoch said their campaign had been boosted by the atmosphere around the British team.

"You can feel the confidence in Team GB. You felt the positive energy and that really helps you," he said. "A lot has come from London. You have seen how the whole country was behind Team GB there and we have been feeling that, everyone back home cheering us on."

With Lizzy Yarnold's skeleton gold and a bronze for the snowboarder Jenny Jones already in the bag and Murdoch's rink guaranteed at least a silver, Team GB are assured of hitting their minimum medal target and equalling their haul of 1936.

Eve Muirhead's women curlers, who were unable to recover from an early setback that left them 3-0 down after two ends and lost their semi-final against the unbeaten Canadians 6-4, can win bronze if they beat Switzerland on Thursday. With other medal chances to come, including the speed skater Elise Christie in the 1,000m and the men's four-man bobsleigh team, Britain could beat their 1924 total.

As on Tuesday, when Murdoch played a perfect final shot to beat Norway in a play-off, his rink put those watching through the mill only to seize victory on the final end as the clock ran down. Now that they had made the final, he said, they were determined to win gold.

"You want the gold, there's no doubt about that. You get this opportunity once in a lifetime and it's up to us to seize the day," said the 35-year-old from Lockerbie. "I'm delighted being in the final, getting that medal that I've wanted for so long but we want the gold. We will push everything, absolutely everything to win that game."

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